Fears over ‘mental health unit’ plans in Conisbrough

Artists impression of the new centre at the former Talisman in Conisbrough.

06:00Tuesday 26 August 2014

Plans to bulldoze a former pub to make way for a hospital to treat people with mental health issues has sparked protests in a Doncaster village.

Nottinghamshire-based firm Eden Futures want to demolish the derelict Talisman pub in Conisbrough and build a hospital on the site to “support adults with learning and mental health disabilities.”

The Talisman, Chestnut Grove, Conisbrough is being planned to be demolished and turned into a residential unit. Picture: Andrew Roe

The move has sparked concern from residents about the type of people who could receive treatment there.

Doncaster’s Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) group, which is supporting The Star’s Save Our Pubs campaign, also bemoaned the loss of another town boozer.

Chairman Bob Kiddle 65, of Auckland Road, Wheatley, said: “It is sad to see yet another pub is set to go. There are far too many going to the bulldozer in Doncaster when they should be saved as community assets.”

A planning application outlines the firm’s intention to flatten the Chestnut Grove site to make way for a two storey block of eight ‘supported living apartments’ and a single storey building of two apartments for staff.

Eden Futures has not given specific details about the type of patients who could receive treatment at the facility.

However, they indicated service users would be similar to those at one of their other sites - Bestwood Independent Hospital in Nottinghamshire - which takes in people who have been detained under the Mental Health Act.

People detained under the act are those deemed to be ‘putting their own safety or someone else’s at risk’ and can be kept in a hospital against their wishes. They could suffer from such serious conditions as schizophrenia.

Eden Futures said the plan would be for patients to progress from the “higher level of care in the hospital, to more independent living that will be provided in the two proposed bungalows and potentially back into the community.“

A previous application for three pairs of semi-detached bungalows was granted in 2011, this latest application was submitted because of changes to the development’s design layout.

Residents outlined their concerns in six letters of objection sent to Doncaster Council.

Amy Oxby, of Old Road, Conisbrough, said: “We would like to make the village a better place to live in and bring our children up not make it worse.”

Becky Nuttall, of Bolton Street, Denaby Main, added the area was “very family orientated” and “not suitable for a half-way house.”

Eden Futures said government policy states “individuals with learning disabilities and mental health needs are supported within the community” and the firm was “responding to this requirement.”

The firm added there would be ten service users, cared for by more than 50 staff.

In a statement, they said: “The wellbeing of both service users and the local community are paramount and this has been carefully incorporated into the design.

“Eden Futures is an open and transparent organisation and have been sharing information with local elected councillors.”

Residents have until September 3 to have their say on the proposals and can write to the council. There is no planning meeting date set yet but a decision is due to be made before October 24.

The Doncaster Star launched its Save Our Pubs campaign earlier this year because of concerns over the number of community pubs in the borough which have closed down.

This website and its associated newspaper adheres to the Independent Press Standards Organisation's Editors' Code of Practice.
If you have a complaint about editorial content which relates to inaccuracy or intrusion, then contact the
Editor by clicking here.

If you remain dissatisfied with the response provided then you can contact the IPSO by
clicking here.

The Star provides news, events and sport features from the Sheffield area. For the best up to date information relating to Sheffield and the surrounding areas visit us at The Star regularly or bookmark this page.

For you to enjoy all the features of this website The Star requires permission to use cookies.

Find Out More ▼

What is a Cookie?

What is a Flash Cookie?

Can I opt out of receiving Cookies?

About our Cookies

Cookies are small data files which are sent to your browser (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome etc) from a website you visit. They are stored on your electronic device.

This is a type of cookie which is collected by Adobe Flash media player (it is also called a Local Shared Object) - a piece of software you may already have on your electronic device to help you watch online videos and listen to podcasts.

Yes there are a number of options available, you can set your browser either to reject all cookies, to allow only "trusted" sites to set them, or to only accept them from the site you are currently on.

However, please note - if you block/delete all cookies, some features of our websites, such as remembering your login details, or the site branding for your local newspaper may not function as a result.

The types of cookies we, our ad network and technology partners use are listed below:

Revenue Science ►

A tool used by some of our advertisers to target adverts to you based on pages you have visited in the past. To opt out of this type of targeting you can visit the 'Your Online Choices' website by clicking here.

Google Ads ►

Our sites contain advertising from Google; these use cookies to ensure you get adverts relevant to you. You can tailor the type of ads you receive by visiting here or to opt out of this type of targeting you can visit the 'Your Online Choices' website by clicking here.

Digital Analytics ►

This is used to help us identify unique visitors to our websites. This data is anonymous and we cannot use this to uniquely identify individuals and their usage of the sites.

Dart for Publishers ►

This comes from our ad serving technology and is used to track how many times you have seen a particular ad on our sites, so that you don't just see one advert but an even spread. This information is not used by us for any other type of audience recording or monitoring.

ComScore ►

ComScore monitor and externally verify our site traffic data for use within the advertising industry. Any data collected is anonymous statistical data and cannot be traced back to an individual.

Local Targeting ►

Our Classified websites (Photos, Motors, Jobs and Property Today) use cookies to ensure you get the correct local newspaper branding and content when you visit them. These cookies store no personally identifiable information.

Grapeshot ►

We use Grapeshot as a contextual targeting technology, allowing us to create custom groups of stories outside out of our usual site navigation. Grapeshot stores the categories of story you have been exposed to. Their privacy policy and opt out option can be accessed here.

Subscriptions Online ►

Our partner for Newspaper subscriptions online stores data from the forms you complete in these to increase the usability of the site and enhance user experience.

Add This ►

Add This provides the social networking widget found in many of our pages. This widget gives you the tools to bookmark our websites, blog, share, tweet and email our content to a friend.